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Savvy, formerly known as bnbfinder, is showing savings of hundreds — sometimes thousands — of dollars on a weekly vacation rental versus the same property on Airbnb.
It does so with its new “real-time price comparison tool.”
Some of the savings come because Savvy directs users to the websites of its property manager partners. Because it’s a direct booking, guests avoid paying the Airbnb service charge.
Consider this example: Savvy, which doesn’t charge a service fee of its own, shows a 4-bedroom, 2-bath property in Phoenix for $2,339 before taxes for a six-night stay in early February. It indicates that guests booking the same property on Airbnb would pay $550 more. (Actually the savings would be $273. More on this below.)
Source: Savvy
The following screenshot shows the same property on Airbnb:
Source: Airbnb
Airbnb’s nightly rate, plus a $300 cleaning fee and a $357 Airbnb service charge, brings the total before taxes to $2,889. That’s $550 more than on Savvy.
But the saving aren’t quite that big; Savvy directs users to property managers to complete the booking. In this example, you’d go to PHX Stays.
Source: PHX Stays
PHX Stays’ nightly rate plus fees — including a service charge and “trust and safety fee” — but before taxes is $2,616. So the savings versus booking the same property on Airbnb is actually $273 — and not the $550 that Savvy said it would be.
Still, there would be savings following Savvy’s advice — just not as much as it said there would be.
Not a Great User Experience on Savvy
We found similar discrepancies on Savvy compared to the actual price on the property management website. Still, there was savings versus Airbnb, usually because of the service fee Airbnb charges guests.
Savvy faces the problem that many referral sites do: The sites it directs users to vary in quality. In one instance, the property manager website required the user to start the search all over again instead of just directing the potential guest to the property in question.
In another instance, clicking the “continue to book” button on Savvy repeatedly produced an error when directing the user to the property manager website in Snowmass Village, Colorado. At that property, the savings versus Airbnb for a 6-night stay in an 8-bedroom property in early February would purportedly have been $9,373. That’s not a typo. The price on Airbnb before taxes was $25,391 versus $16,018 on Savvy. Some of Airbnb’s higher price was tied to a $1,250 cleaning fee, and a $3,141 service charge for guests.
“Sites like Airbnb charge guest service fees that Savvy doesn’t, so booking through Savvy will almost always be lower,” Savvy founder and CEO Eric Goldreyer told Skift via email Wednesday. “That said, hosts and property managers control their own pricing, so occasional differences may happen because of demand or promotions.”
He said the price comparison tool gives consumers “a real-time view of their options, so travelers can make informed decisions.”
If Airbnb ends up having a lower price, then Savvy provides the links and people can book the property on Airbnb, he said.
$2,400 Savings on a South Beach Stay
In another example, Savvy and its property manager partner, Luxury Rentals Miami, showed a $2,397 savings for a 2-bedroom, 6-night stay at the W South Beach in early March.
As shown in the screenshot below, Savvy showed the total price before taxes as $8,557 before taxes, and the website of its partner, Luxury Rentals Miami, had the same price.
Source: Savvy
Airbnb showed the price before taxes as $10,589 for the same property on the same dates, as seen below. So that was $2,397 higher before taxes.
Source: Airbnb
Airbnb declined to comment about Savvy.
How Does Savvy Make Money?
Bnbfinder was founded in 1998, and Goldreyer, who serves as CEO, took it over in 2022, and turned it into a business to spur direct bookings for property managers. The company, which recently rebranded as Savvy, says it has more than 150,000 properties listed on the site.
Savvy is not a booking site. Its business model is to earn subscription fees from property managers who pay for higher visibility on the site. Savvy directs users to property manager websites for bookings.
Savvy plans to provide links to Vrbo, as well, for comparison pricing purposes.
Asked if Airbnb might try to shut down its comparison pricing tool, Goldreyer said: “Our focus is on helping travelers make informed, smarter booking decisions. One way we’re doing this is with our price comparison feature, which uses publicly available data to help guests easily compare their options.”
Here’s Goldreyer at Skift’s Short-Term Rental Summit last year.
